I started my day pretty early considering I didn't go to bed til 3:30am this morning. Eh...whatever! I got up at 8:30 this morning and left my place at about 9:30 since my appointment with my studies advisor was at 10:00. It doesn't take anywhere near half hour to get there since I live on campus as it is...but I wasn't 100% on where to go and the last thing that I wanted was to be late. I also wanted enough time to get in a picture of the campus so that I could show you all back home where I am studying. It's a lot different setup than WSU. I'm used to lots of different buildings spread out over a large campus. This campus isn't particularly small...but it is practically one big building. Everything is connected by corridors and other than the student village where I live everything is connected.
This picture doesn't help show the size of the campus building but I first just wanted to show the entrance. The next picture is trying to show the size...but you can't fit the whole thing in one picture...so I guess just use your imaginations! :)
So I got there and found the office and still had a little less than 20 min to waste..oops :P I sat on a bench next a little cafe that people walk by and just people watched for that time. I love to people watch so I wasn't bored at all. A bunch of high school students kept walking by (you can tell they are high school because they have on their school uniforms). Most of them were wearing sweatshirts that said Ulster University Step Up...I could only assume that "step up" is their way of saying "running start." Another thing that I noticed is, you know those handy cap buttons you can push to have to door open for you? EVERYONE in Northern Ireland pushes those things to get through every door. I always feel like those are a waste of time if you don't actually need them because then you just end up standing there long enough for it to open enough to get through haha.
When it was time to go to my advisor I was a little nervous. From others I had heard that enrollment and registration is a complex process of trying to find people offices for stamps and signatures and approvals. I walked into my advisor's office with my paper with the correct codes for the classes and back up classes I was looking at and a sketched out table of the class times to show no over laps were there and she said I was now her favorite student. Most students she said come in with not even an idea of what they want to take let alone all the info I had. My guess is that the advisors get fed up with unhelpful students and don't feel like taking the time to help them figure out the enrollment and registration process. Because my advisor walked with me to every office and introduced me to everyone and the whole thing went very smoothly and I was able to get into every class I needed without a problem! :) (With how helpful she was to me I felt badly that I couldn't round up the courage to let her know she still had the store tag on her skirt...)
Once I got done with all of that I headed up to the International Students office to get a letter made up saying that I was enrolled and registered to take to the Bank next week so that I can get a bank account. I would think that if I was arranging a college I would put the international office right at the front in an easy place to find it...it's a complete maze to find this office!!! I have a new found respect for international students that come to WSU...it's more challenging than you could ever know until you experience it. However, I was able to find the room and get my paper. I had just enough time to get out to the front of the building to meet up with the International Group going on the field trip to Carrickfergus.
We had two stops in Carrickfergus...first we went to the Carrickfergus Castle and then we went to the Carrickfergus Castle Museum. The Castle is an old Irish Castle and we learned all about it on a walking tour. Our guide gave a very good tour and also told us some ghost stories about the castle! At the top of one of the towers they have a video room for visitors to watche videos on the castle. He said that every night they straighten the chairs, turn off the dvd player, lock the door to that room and lock the door to the front of the castle. Random nights they will come back the next morning to the dvd room with the dvd playing and the chairs thrown about! He was convincing too.. ;)
Our second stop was the museum which wasn't very exciting lol. The exciting part was that we got to meet the mayor of Carrickfergus, Jim McClurg! He stood there and talked to me and a girl named Carina who is from Switzerland for awhile asking us questions. On our way back to the bus to go back to campus Carina told me that we were pretty much famous now lol.
Then we went back to campus and I came back to my room. My flat mates have formed a pretty strong bond already that they have easily shown I am not a part of...Good thing classes start next Monday so I will get the chance to make some friends hopefully. :) I'm still a bit sad that I don't have a good group with my flat mates...they put international students together for a reason and that's so that we will have a support group of people who know what we're going through and mine just pushed me out...talked to mom on skype a lot today because she stayed home sick from work with a nasty cold. She was trying to cheer me up with these different things on skype:
She might hate me for adding these but I'm just showing how great of a mom she is. She made me smile when I was sad. :) Took an unplanned nap while I was waiting for it to be late enough for Robert to get off work for a skype date...and now we're skyping! :)
Favorite part of today...the view from the castle...it was a beautiful Irish day. :)
Cheerio!
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